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Corona: Lauterbach defends “killer variants” choice of words – and excludes “life like 2019” in autumn

2022-07-31T02:59:28.312Z


Corona: Lauterbach defends “killer variants” choice of words – and excludes “life like 2019” in autumn Created: 07/31/2022, 04:48 am By: Bettina Menzel Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) expects major problems in the coming months of the pandemic, as he told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in an interview on Friday (archive image, July 1). © IMAGO/Florian Gaertner/photothek.de I Federa


Corona: Lauterbach defends “killer variants” choice of words – and excludes “life like 2019” in autumn

Created: 07/31/2022, 04:48 am

By: Bettina Menzel

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) expects major problems in the coming months of the pandemic, as he told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in an interview on Friday (archive image, July 1).

© IMAGO/Florian Gaertner/photothek.de I

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach expects major problems in the fall and warns against underestimating the BA.5 variant.

A life like 2019 is not yet possible.

Cologne – Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has been warning for a long time that the BA.5 variant of the corona virus is more dangerous than the BA.2 variant.

He therefore expects major problems in the coming months of the pandemic, as he said in an interview with the

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

on Friday .

The minister spoke out clearly in favor of maintaining the quarantine obligation in Germany - and announced the new corona rules for next week.

Lauterbach on quarantine rules: "If we live like 2019, we would have disproportionate death rates"

With the BA.5 variant of the corona virus, the likelihood is greater that you will have to be seriously ill and treated in the hospital, Lauterbach said on Friday.

This was also clearly indicated by two recently published studies.

Despite a decline in the high incidences, there is already an increase in hospitalizations in Germany, and the intensive care units are also filling up, according to the minister, "And more people are dying again." The RKI weekly report on Thursday confirmed this observation and showed that the currently falling incidences represent more of a sideways movement than a falling trend.

In addition, the BA.5 line was found in nine out of ten samples.

In Greece and Spain, the quarantine requirement has already been lifted.

This is obviously not an option for Germany.

"If we open everything and live like 2019 again, then we would have disproportionate death rates," said the Minister of Health, defending the quarantine regulation.

There would then also be a lot of Long Covid and an overload of hospitals and critical infrastructure.

The legal basis for the corona protection measures expires in September, so Health Minister Lauterbach and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) are currently negotiating the new corona rules for autumn.

Lauterbach is already expecting results “in the next week,” he told the

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

.

Lauterbach contradicts Gassen's assumption that BA.5 variant is "peace offer of the virus"

The head of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, recently contradicted Lauterbach publicly on the quarantine regulation and the vaccination strategy.

With regard to the BA.5 variant, the head of the statutory health insurance physicians said it was a “peace offer from the virus”.

Lauterbach vehemently contradicted this on Friday: That was not a scientifically tenable position.

Many people would pay with their deaths if they accepted such an offer, because the mortality rate for BA.5 was higher than for BA.2.

The original idea that you become infected and then be immune forever has not been confirmed.

That's what people believed in the beginning, when not so much was known about the virus.

Gassen's proposal probably came from this body of thought, Lauterbach suspected.

Anyone who has already been infected with BA.2 can easily reinfect themselves with BA.5.

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The Federal Minister of Health therefore recommends - just like the EU authorities - the fourth vaccination for people with previous illnesses, nursing staff and for people over 60 years of age.

If you have a lot of personal contact - for example work in a bar - you can consider the second booster vaccination in consultation with your family doctor even if you are under 60 years old.

Lauterbach emphasizes that this does not correspond to a general recommendation of the second booster for everyone.

Media had previously misrepresented this.

In his opinion, the USA is showing an interesting way to reduce corona mortality despite vaccination gaps.

During his trip to the USA, Lauterbach learned that the Americans use the drug Paxlovid in around 40,000 risk patients per day.

This will help to significantly reduce mortality.

Minister of Health defends the choice of words "killer variant" - and describes the path to endemic disease

In an interview with the

Kölner Stadtanzeiger

, Lauterbach also defended himself against the accusation that his choice of words, such as “killer variant” in the pandemic, was unnecessarily drastic.

"I use few words that are apocalyptic," said the health minister.

"But sometimes you have to call things by their name." If there were a virus that linked the infection of the BA.5 variant with the severe course of a delta variant, "then that would be a killer variant".

He "didn't say that such a variant would definitely come, but that we had to be prepared for such a variant."

The minister also described the path from the pandemic to the endemic.

It was initially assumed that the endemic situation would now be reached, but it was not there yet, explained Lauterbach and agreed with a statement recently made by virologist Christian Drosten that “the pandemic could last a few more winters”.

To get into an endemic situation, a lot has to happen.

Lauterbach expects significantly improved vaccines here.

Another lockdown: Vote with us.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-07-31

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